(Survey) How Peru forged Pope Leo XIV

From our special envoy to Chiclayo.

Blue fillet on the hair, kitchen apron around the waist, Rosa Luis Gomez carefully monitors the cooking of a large pot of soup on the fire powered by a gas cylinder. Five times a week, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., the septuagenarian helps meal preparation at comedor (canteen) Notre-Dame de Chota, a stone’s throw from Chiclayo cathedral in Peru. There, anyone who presents themselves can benefit from a generous hot meal for free.

For Rosa Luis Gomez, serving there is obvious. “My parents have taught me since childhood to share, I try to do so. »Operating thanks to three women volunteers, the place supports around fifty beneficiaries daily, from 7 to 77 years old. “It is a work of faith and charity, we help private people from what no one should miss,” explains Daria Chavarry, the team manager. “Here, everything is done thanks to the gifts of individuals and the parish, as well as to the volunteers who come every day,” says Janinna Sesa, former director of the Diocesan Caritas (Confederation of charitable organizations, editor’s note) .

The place was founded in 2019 under the impetus of the then bishop, a certain Robert Prevost. Arrived in Chiclayo in 2014, he was appointed bishop of this city of 609,000 inhabitants the following year and stayed there until 2023, the year when Pope Francis called him in Rome to direct the Dicastery for the bishops. Two years later, on May 8, 2025, the world discovered it dressed in white on the balcony of the Saint-Pierre basilica, under the name of Léon XIV. For Father Angel Pena Flores, parish priest in the diocese and remained close to Léon XIV – barely elected, the Pope sent him a message for his birthday – the particular attention of the native of the United States for the poorest manifested himself from his beginnings as a missionary. “During his first experience in Peru, in the mid -1980s in Chulucanas, Mgr Prevost worked a lot with simple people, narrates the church man. When you are a priest in these more remote regions, you are in contact with people who struggle to feed their families and live without knowing what the next day will be done. Seeing such humble populations, who suffer and have nothing, it touches us: helping them is part of evangelization. »»

It is this attention that seems to have guided the new pope in the choice of his name. “I thought of taking the name of Léon XIV (…) mainly because Pope Leon XIII, with historical encyclical Novarum rerum, approached the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution; And today the Church offers all its inheritance of social doctrine to respond (…) (to) New challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and work, “he explained before the cardinals, the day after his election.

LIVE SYNODALITY

Under his momentum, fifteen COMEDORES opened through the Chiclayo region. They work above all thanks to the lay people – almost all women – who cook, serve meals and do the dishes every day. As for priests, “their responsibility is to make calls for food donations to each mass! », Hads Daria Orrega, of comedor Saint-Martin-de-Tours to go, a few kilometers from the center of Chiclayo. “Bishop Prevost has a great desire for a church where all, lay, priests, consecrated, walk together to build bridges. For him, it is together that we form the church and everyone has an important role to play there, ”says Sister Romina Bitel, member of the diocesan pastoral team, when the current pope was in Chiclayo.

A synodal approach confirmed by Lucia Reupo Durand, from the hearth of Puerto Eten, on the banks of the Pacific Ocean: “Mgr Prevost insisted on the need to listen to themselves to be able to make pastoral plans which really meet the needs of people. Here, we have therefore implemented the synodal listening process with migrants, fishermen, young people, women, all members of the community. »»

And it seems to work. ” THE Come-Dores are like the multiplication of the breads: every day we have what to feed those who come to us ”, salutes the manager of the home. And everyone remembers that the one who is now Pope did not hesitate to do his part. “When he came, the bishop arrived with food and helped serve meals,” recalls Rosa Luis Gomez, supporting photos.

A bishop while driving

Bringing foods of necessity himself: Mgr Prevost did not do so that with COMEDORES . Twice during its mandate – in 2017 and 2023 – The Chiclayo region was struck by heavy rain, ravaging the dwellings and flooding the villages. “On March 10, 2023, the river overflowed at 7 am. At 9 am, I called the bishop. At 10 a.m., he was driving his van with first food! The story is of Father Felix Fiestas Martinez, parish priest of the Illimo parish, located north of Chiclayo and on the edge of the La Leche river. “Bishop Prevost was the first to arrive, even before the authorities,” recalls Rocio Zena Aricoché, a young woman who had then had to flee her house, with emotion.

Boots on the feet, Mgr Prevost goes into the flooded streets, from home to house, to provide first material help to families who cannot leave their homes. As for those whose homes are destroyed, they find refuge in a parish hall. “I want the priests to be like Pope Francis,” said the bishop to the clergy of his diocese, according to Father Fiestas Martinez. Understand: a “country hospital” church, ready to rescue those in need, including in a very concrete way. Throughout the flood period, Mgr Prevost will return several times to Illimo, always with property for the victims, such as mattresses for the hundreds of them who had found themselves homeless overnight.

“When something happened in the diocese, he was always the first to go there. He was not afraid to get his hands dirty, “says Sister Romina Bitel, describing a man” very attentive to the fragile part of humanity “. For her, this most fragile concern was not a simple charity, but “a way of doing justice to those whose dignity has been flouted”.

Community

However, the future pope did not forget spiritual aid. “Bishop Prevost encouraged us to pray, he comforted us by telling us that despite the trials, God was with us,” recalls Rocio Zena Aricoche. In these moments, it was a blessing to have it as a bishop. He was more than a father: he did for us what no one else has done. The young woman remembers in particular a dramatic episode. “We were all in the room and the rain fell, stronger than ever. I was afraid. I thought I was going to die. So, we remembered the words of the bishop: faith can move the mountains. We all prayed together, and we found comfort. “Since then, she said with emotion,” we have remained very united “.

This testimony resonates with the last homily that Cardinal Prevost pronounced in Chiclayo, in August 2024, when he returned to visit his former diocese. “Even when we are tired, perhaps when we suffer a lot (…) The Lord comes to give us the strength we need and accompanies us. Sometimes he pushes us, raises us and tells us to continue walking. And one of the ways he tells us to continue walking is precisely when we are gathered in community. »»

Building bridges

Bring each other to unite to act together: this seems to have been the common thread of the mandate of the former bishop of Chiclayo. A few kilometers from Illimo, always on the banks of the Leche, another place bears the testimony: the refuge of the Pacora community, to cope with the floods. After the devastating rains of 2017, under the leadership of Mgr Prevost, the diocese had taken an action in two stages: emergency aid and substantive work with the inhabitants to better prepare for the next floods. “The Caritas first helped us to remain united between us, then to establish a committee for the construction of the refuge,” says Juan Alberto Coronado, elected to the management of this committee.

In July 2021, the refuge was inaugurated. “We were able to build it thanks to Bishop Prevost who made the link between the different actors: with the Caritas which collected donations, the municipality which gave construction materials, and the community which provided the workforce”, underlines Juan Alberto Coronado. And the place was quick to serve. The rains of 2023 won the dwellings of some 300 members of the community. For three months, all of them were able to find shelter.

“Janinna, you have to do something for all those people who die!” In 2020, Chiclayo was overwhelmed by the first wave of Covid-19. The region is one of the most affected in Peru, hospitals are overwhelmed and oxygen is sorely lacking to help breathe those with the most virus forms of the virus. Faced with the arrest of Mgr Prevost, the one who is then director of the Diocesan Caritas is a little distraught: what can we do?

But the bishop already has the answer: “We have to buy oxygen generators! “A wish, almost a order, which is not without leaving Janinna Sesa somewhat unarken:” What did I know about the production of oxygen? ” Not enough to be put down. Faced with the camera, the missionary bishop launches the “Oxygen of Hope” campaign on social networks. The goal was to bring together a generator – nearly $ 200,000.

“In a few days, we had already received the sum!” It must be said that the call benefited from the bishop’s networks, especially abroad, but also from the mobilization of all. “Entrepreneurs have given thousands of Peruvian soils (the national currency), while some sacrificed the few deniers they had to eat,” says Janinna Sesa. Why stop on such a good path? The kitty is left open. Finally, two generators of American design oxygen can be purchased by the diocese.

The faith of a man

Prevost inaugurated the first in Chiclayo in April 2021, the second in Mochumi in July. “We all worked together, municipality, parish, inhabitants,” welcomes Jorge Musayon, president of the Manager association. “Either people already had a candy and came to fill it here, or we have one in them,” he explains. But in any case, he prides himself, “no one has paid the slightest penny for our oxygen! According to the manager, around a thousand patients have benefited from oxygen produced in Mochumi.

For Janinna SESA, the purchase of these two generators will have been a particularly important marker of the episcopal mandate of Mgr Prevost in Chiclayo. “This is really why people have developed a great affection for him, when he mobilized in the face of this danger of death. Above all, the episode showed everyone’s faith to everyone. “Bishop Prevost was convinced that you can do great things if you unite. And these two generators are witnesses. “Because as the now Pope Leon said:” With Providence, sting “(” It’s possible “).